A large variety of plastic products are made by extruders which generally consist of forcing a plastic material through a suitably shaped die to produce a desired cross-section shape. The extruding force may be applied by a piston or ram or by a rotating screw. Regardless of the type of extruder used, the raw plastic materials (usually in the form of small plastic beads) must be supplied to an inlet feed or extruder choke normally located at the top of an extruder head.
Conventional apparatus for supplying the plastic material to the extruder choke includes a hopper adapted to store the plastic material and a feeder section adapted to transport the plastic material from the hopper to the extruder choke. Conventional feeders generally employ numerous bolt and flange connections to connect the feeder to the extruder choke. Apparatus of this type, however, have several drawbacks. One such drawback is that the apparatus cannot be easily disconnected for cleaning or other maintenance operations which leads to decreased production capacity.